Instrument-panel mounting



Oct. 15, 1929. J. F. WILSON ET m.

INSTRUMENT PANEL MOUNTING Filed Feb. 18, 1928 fr/57:17:30 a? Patented Oct. 15, 1929 UNITED STATES PATENT, OFFICE JOHN F. WILSON AND ALBERT R. LEVVELLEN, F DETROIT, MICHIGAN, ASSIGNOBS TO GENERAL MOTURS CORPORATION, OF DETROIT, MICHIGAN, A CORPORATION OF DELAWARE INSTRUMENT-PANEL MOUNTING- Applieation filed February 18, 1928. Serial No. 255,401.

This invention relates to an instrument assembly such as the assembly of indicating instruments usually provided on the instrument board of an automotive vehicle.

s In one of the conventional forms of an instrument assembly an instrument board is provided with an opening, and a panel carrying a number of instruments, such as a speedometer, oil gauge, etc. is mounted in the open ing. The present invention relates to im' provements in an instrument assembly of this type.

Since an assembly of this character must have a pleasing appearance, it is essential that no connecting elements, such as bolts, screws, nuts, etc., be visible on the face of the instrument board; This restricts the connecting elements to the rear side of the instrumentboard which is beneath the cowl 2 and in a relatively inaccessible position, and makes diflicult the fixing of the panel to the instrument board, since the connecting elements are small and the panel must be fixed in position by the sense of touch, rather than by sight. 1

In the usual construction, the panel is connected directly to the rear side of the instrument board by means of screws threaded into or otherwise fixed to the instrument board, or by means involving the use of a number of bolts, clamps, brackets or other connecting elements. Each of these methods is objectionable because of the number of parts required and because of the difliculty in assembling the structure.

According to the present invention, we construct one or both of a pair of interfitting structural elements such as an instrument board and instrument panel from sheet metal, preferably fo ming one of them, as the instrument board, with a head so positioned as to avoid the necessity of a separate ornamental strip or beading about the instruments. The instrument board and/or the panel may be bent inwardly or forwardly to provide a flange or flanges about the panel opening, and one or both of these may be there provided with peripheral parts, such as a number of concealed extensions or tongues,which may be bent over, for retaining the heads of a number of fasteners, such as ordinary or special bolts. Each of the latter may comprise a part which passes through some opening in a peripheral flange or extension upon the panel, and may there receive a cooperating part such as a wing nut.

With this constuction, the part last referred to being prefe ably disposed behind or opposite the inner or concealed side of the men tioned head, a very simple and inexpensive means is provided for drawing the panel into the opening in the instrument board up to a limit determined by the use of mentioned flanges as stops. The panel may be readily fitted into position, since all the bolts are loosely mounted and can be moved to register with the bolt holes in case any of the parts are out of alignment. This arrangement lessens the diflieulty of fixing the panel to the instrument board since the only connecting elements which are removable are the nuts, and these -if wing nuts are used, may be tightened with the hand alone.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will appear in the course of the following description, taken in connection with the accompanying drawing and appended claims.

In the drawing:

Fig. 1 is a rearwardly looking view, taken as from under a cowl, parts being broken away.

Fig. 2 is a section on the line 22 of Fig. 1.

F ig. 3 is a view similar to Fig. 2, showing a modified form of the invention.

Fig. l is a section on the line d- 1 of Fig. 3.

The numeral 10 indicates a main structural element, which may be the instrument board of an automotive vehicle, and which is shown as provided with a substantially oval opening 12. The instrument board is shown as formed of sheet metal stamped to provide a bezel-like bead 1 1 and an inwardly eX- tending flange 16 about the opening 12. At spaced points about the opening the flange 16 is provided with pairs of peripheral and integral fastener-retaining parts, such as tongues or lugs 18; and these, in the case of a board formed of sheet metal, may be bent away from the opening, to positions providing slots 19 therebetween and close to the normally concealed inner side of the instrument board behind the mentioned bead as shown in Fig. 2. A loosely engaged, tensionable fastening element, such as a T-bolt 20, may extend through each slot 19, each bolt being shown as provided with a pivoting element such as cross-head 22 which is held in the space between the tongues 18 and bead 14. This construction permits the T-bolt to pivot about its crosshead as an axis and the construction may be such as to permit it slightly to twist and slide laterally.

Supported on the instrument board 10 1s shown a subsidiary structural element in the form of an instrument panel which comprises a supporting plate 24 on which the various instruments are mounted, the face of the plate lying within the opening 12 and being shown as slightly in the rear of the bead l i. The plate '24 may be formed with an inwardly extending flange 26 fitting within the instrument board flange 16, and as comprising a normally concealed peripheral part in the form of a flange 28 abutting or extending into proximity to the flange 16, and adapted to be so engaged by any preferred fasteners as to press said panel into the opening 12. The .T-bolts 20 are shown as extending through openings in the flange 28 and as provided with wing nuts 30. The plate 2% may be formed with any desired number of openings for exposing the dials of the various instruments, such as a speedometer 9 and ammeter 8, which may be fixed to the platein any usual or desired manner, such as by means of clamps ,7. If desired, the face of the plate 24 may be etched or otherwise treated to give the plate a pleasing appearance, and all forms of this invention will be seen to involve the provision of concealed sets of opposable peripheral extensions upon interfitting structural elements, and concealed tensionable fasteners comprising parts which respectively engage the opposite extensions upon said structural elements.

The modification shown in Figs. 3 and 4 is substantially the same as that shown in Figs. land 2 except that the tongues 18 in Figs. 3 and 4 are bent around the crosshead 22 and under the bead 1 1 instead of being extended outward along the rear side of the instrument board.

With the construction disclosed, the retaining bolts are non-removably mounted on the rear side of the instrument board and consequently cannot be misplaced when the panel is being mounted upon or dismounted from the board. Each bolt is loosely supported on the board by a verysimple device which permits the bolt to pivot freely and to be moved bodily slightly so that it may readily register with the corresponding bolt hole in the instrument panel, even though there may e s me ina curacy in t al gnment. o the parts. This construction avoids the necessity of welding, soldering, etc., a number of connecting elements on the instrument panel. The bead on the instrument board about the panel opening sets oil the face of the panel to good advantage and renders unnecessary the provision of a separate strip for covering the line of abutment between the panel and instrument board.

We claim:

1. The combination of an instrument board formed with an opening, a plurality of retaining elements movably but non-removably supported on the instrument board by integral tongues spaced about said opening, and a rearwardly insertable support for a plurality of instruments mounted in said opening. and held in position by said retaining elements.

2. The combination of an instrument board formed with an opening and a raised bead surrounding said opening, an instrument supporting panel having a portion within said opening, and connecting means between said panel and board,a part of said connecting means being movably retained behind said head, by means extending from said board.

3. The combination of an instrument board of sheet material formed with an opcnin g surrounded by a bead and extended to form concealed tongues, spaced about said opening, a plurality of retaining elements non-removably held by tongues upon the concealed side of said instrument board, and an instrument support secured to said instrument board by said retaining elements.

4. The combination of an instrument board of sheet material formed with an opening and an inwardly extending flange about said opening, a rearwardly insertable instrument panel having a portion within said opening and provided with a stop-portion held against said instrument board flange, and means for so holding said panel.

5. The combination of an instrument board of sheet material formed With an opening and an inwardly extending flange, a rearwardly insertable instrument support opposite said opening having fixed thereon a plurality of instruments and provided with a stop portion resting against said instrument board flange, portions of said instrument board flange being bent outward, and connecting means between said outwardly bent portions and said instrument support.

6. In an instrument assembly, an instrument board formed with an opening, a connecting element on the concealed side of said instrument board adjacent the opening and held against removal by a bent over portion of said instrument board, and a rearwardly insertable instrument support held in position oversaid opening by said connecting element.

7. In an instrument assembly, an instrument board of sheet material formed with an opening, a plurality of connecting elements on the concealed side of said instrument board about said opening and held against removal by bent over portions of said board, and an instrument support fixed in position over said opening by said connecting elements.

8. In an instrument assembly, an instrument board of sheet material formed with an opening, a retaining bolt on the concealed side of said instrument board and held in position by a portion of said instrument board bent over the head of the bolt, and an instrument support held in position over said opening by said retaining bolt.

9. In an instrument assembly, an instrument board formed with an opening, a plurality of T-bolts about said opening on the concealed side 01 the instrument board and held in position by bent over portions of said board, and an instrument support over said opening and held fixed to said instrument board by said T-bolts.

10. The combination with an instrument board of sheet material formed with an opening and an inwardly extending flange about said opening, said flange being formed at intervals with portions extending outward from said opening, of a plurality of retaining bolts held on said instrument board by said outward extending portions.

11. The combination of an instrument board element and an instrument supporting panel element, one of said elements being formed with a bent over portion, a bolt nonremovably held by said bent over portion and extending through said other element, and a nut for said bolt.

12. For use in securing a subsidiary structural element, such as a panel for instruments, within an opening in a main structural element, such as an instrument board having a normally concealed surface; integral fastener-retaining parts extending from one of said structural elements; tensionable fasteners secured by said fastener-retaining parts; and a normally concealed part integral with the other of saidstructural elements, and extending into proximity to said fastener-retaining parts and adapted to be so engaged by said fasteners as to press the lastmentioned structural element into said openmg.

13. A combination as defined in claim .12, in which some of said fasteners are in the form of bolts each having a pivoting head which is loosely engaged by said retaining parts.

1 1. A combination as defined in claim 12, in which a bezel-like bead is formed integral with one of said structural elements and said fasteners are disposed behind said bead.

15. A combination as defined in claim 12, in which said fastenenretaining parts comprise lugs on said board, and in which said fasteners are T-bolts pivotally retained by said lugs.

16. A combination as defined in claim 12 in which said fasteners include loosely fitting bolts normally concealed by a part of said board, and in which a flange integral with said panel is provided with openings for said bolts.

17. In combination: an apertured instrument board and an interfitting panel respectively provided with concealed integul and opposable peripheral extensions, and concealed tensionable fasteners comprising parts respectively engaging opposite extensions.

18. In a vehicle: an instrument board provided with a panel opening; and tongues, integral with said board and disposed peripherally of said opening, to engage means for retaining a panel in said opening.

19. In a vehicle: an instrument board provided with a panel opening; tongues disposed peripherally of said opening; a rearwardly insertable panel in said opening; and fasten ers, held by said tongues, and engaging parts integral with said panel.

20. In a vehicle: an instrument board provided with an opening having extensions at its periphery; a panel rearwardly insertable in. said opening to a limit established by a peripheral stop, and spaced means, directly engaging said extensions and said stop, for drawing said panel into said opening.

In testimony whereof we ailix our signa' t-ures.

JOHN F. WILSON. ALBERT It. LEWELLEN. 

